Leeds Through a Lens

Artist Biographies

JOE STENSON

Joe’s photography stems from a consistent search for alternative subject matter through Urban Exploration. Drawn to the aesthetic of large, sometimes decayed and empty man made spaces, these five portraits show familiar and unfamiliar views of built Leeds.

Growing up in the industrial wastelands of the South Tees basin, Joe and his Dad regularly tramped through the remnants of British Steel Redcar at the back end of the 1980′s taking photographs of rusting industry and pools of odd liquids.

urbanwanderings.blogspot.co.uk
joestenson.co.uk

PETER MITCHELL

Peter Mitchell is well known for his work from the 1970’s and 80’s, particularly his documentation of the demolition of the Quarry Hill flats in the late 70’s.

RYAN LEAROYD

Ryan’s love of photography has always existed and his adoration of the still image is merely an extension of his passion for film. After studying a BA in film and television production, humble beginnings as a fine art & travel photographer turned into a hunger for photojournalism. This fast paced & emotive style naturally led him to wedding photography, which is the focus of much of his current work.

His style is spontaneous, bold, graphic and creative, backed by a strong belief in capturing those fleeting moments of emotion, expression, love…

shuttergoclick.com

KATIE BOOTLAND

Katie Bootland is an artist living and working in Bradford. Interested in narrative and the created scene, her work draws upon folklore, history, literature and cinematography to create images in both analogue and digital media. Exploring story telling and questioning narrative structure through experimental techniques, her work embraces narrative devices, themes and motifs and plays with visual interpretation through visual tricks, symbolism and semiotics.

Katie Bootland has exhibited in a range of spaces in the North West and publishes her own and other artists work through Sheer Wonder Press, an independent press which she co-founded in 2011. She graduated from Manchester School Of Art with a BA(Hons) Photography and will begin a MFA Contemporary Art Photography at Edinburgh College of Art later this year.

katiebootland.com

JON STANLEY AUSTIN

“Jon Stanley Austin. Born 1985 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Currently living and working in Leeds.”

jonstanleyaustin.com

JON ELAND

In 2011 Jon’s photography took a new direction – from constantly searching for the single, constructed image, he took to telling stories of the routes he passed along while making the images. To pass on these stories he started collecting his images into small photobooks or ‘zines’. Not only do the zines represent a different method of approaching photography, but they also show him experimenting with styles  and processing to represent his emotional response to the place he was visiting.

Many of his walks in 2011 were in the Leeds area as part of the activities of Exposure Leeds (the city’s photographic society for the digital age) and the four images in this exhibition are all taken from publications he created from these walks.

strawbleu.co.uk

RICKY ADAM

“Ricky likes to shoot photos. His current employment at Dig BMX requires him to shoot photos of BMX, which he does quite brilliantly. But he takes his
photography much further beyond the realm of technically accurate BMX riding. I guess what I’m getting at,is that Ricky captures the reality of life. Yes, he’s a little strange (which we all are to some degree), but there’s a fine line between genius and insanity, and it often gets crossed when someone is spending their living moments laying down on a dirty patch of ground, shooting photos of kids riding their bikes down handrails.” – Brian Tunney

rickyadamphoto.com

JONATHAN EMERY

Jonathan has been surrounded by art and photography from a very early age and has now realised his ambition in the delivery of photography that tells a story. With a story behind the image it ensures extra depth both literally and theoretically.

vector-photography.com

RICK HARRISON

Originally from Wakefield, Rick has lived in Leeds for the past 15 years.

What started as a hobby has in more recent years turned into a semi-professional freelance career with a number of commissions from clients including Leeds City Council and Guinness, and stock Iicencing to clients including Google, Welcome to Yorkshire and Futuresound (a photo of Kirkstall Abbey was used for promoting The Kaiser Chiefs gig there). In 2009 he won 1st prize in the National Trust & Sunday Times photography competition.

With a background originally in Landscape photography (and something that’s still a passion), commissioned work is more often in architecture and general marketing/promotion imagery, with the landscape background driving a strong desire to create well composed, interesting images that evoke feeling.

A love of documenting quirky events and traditions has amongst other things seen him travel to Alaska and Norway photographing The World Beard and Moustache Championships.

fortybelowzero.com

LIAM TANSLEY

Liam Tansley is a photographer based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He works in a variety styles including portraiture, events, landscape, product and HDR.

liamtansleyphoto.com

OLUWASEUN OYENIRAN

I’m primarily a rural landscape photographer, and living in Scotland within reach of it’s lochs & mountains has afforded the opportunity
over the duration of my photographic career. I have had a couple of reasonably successful exhibitions in Glasgow. I moved to Leeds about 2 months ago, and am looking forward to embracing the photographic challenges and opportunities its vibrancy throw my way. I’m a GP primarily, and a photographer in my spare time. I wish it was the other way around!

SARA TERESA

Expatriate, realist, constant striver, obsessive wanderer.

Photographing since 2007, still finding her way. Doesn’t enjoy talking about herself in the third person.

sarateresa.com

MAX FARRAR

Max Farrar has been photographing Leeds, mainly Harehills and Chapeltown, since 1970. He’s worked in community, further and higher education, at the Harehills and Chapeltown Law Centre, and as a freelance writer and photographer. For several years in the early 1990s he played jazz on the Chapeltown pirate radio stations. Now an emeritus professor at Leeds Met University, he writes, photographs and volunteers.

maxfarrar.org.uk

LIAM HENRY

Born 1986, England. BA Hons Photography and Digital Imaging, Leeds Metropolitan University. Currently lives in Leeds, England.

liamhenry.co.uk

LLOYD SPENCER

Lloyd first became seriously involved in photography while working for the anti-Apartheid publishing house, Ravan Press in Johannesburg, South Africa. Then (1981-2) and later in Wigan and Manchester he helped start and run film and photography workshops and helped mount several photographic exhibitions “in what I thought of as ‘documentary’ mode”.

“In 2006 and 2007 I began a very big project documenting life on, and around, Briggate, the main retail thoroughfare of Leeds. This culminated in an exhibition of over 150 large photographs in The Light. After that, and in collaboration with Stephen Griffin, I conducted a second long-term photographic project exploring night life on the streets of inner-city Leeds. At present I am working on a series of projects involving portraiture, foliage and forests, and dance photography.”